News

Wolf delisting rule published

The Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has published the rule proposing to delist the gray wolf populations in the Western Great Lakes, and – in accordance with recently enacted legislation – reinstating the Service’s 2009 decision to delist the gray wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

The Western Great Lakes area included Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin and portions of adjoining states.

The Northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segment (DPS) encompasses Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah. Gray wolves will remain listed under the ESA in Wyoming, although the Service is working closely with that state to develop a wolf management plan that would allow wolves in Wyoming to be removed from the list in the future.

The final rule for wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountain DPS will be effective immediately upon publication in the May 5 Federal Register. Public hearings for the proposed removal of wolves in the Western Great Lakes and proposed removal of eastern states from the gray wolf listing will be held May 18 in Ashland, Wisconsin, and on June 8 in Augusta, Maine. Written comments on the proposed rule for wolves in the Western Great Lakes may be submitted via email, U.S. mail or hand-delivered to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service no later than July 5, 2011.

As part of the proposed rule, the Service would revise the range of the gray wolf (the species Canis lupus) by removing all or parts of 29 eastern states due to newer taxonomic information indicating that the gray wolf did not historically occur in those states. The Service is also initiating status reviews of gray wolves in the Pacific Northwest and Southwest to determine the appropriate entity and listing status of that entity in those areas, as well as seeking information on a newly-recognized species, the eastern wolf (Canis lycaon), throughout its range in the United States and Canada.